Lior Program

Lior Program for Children and their Families – Nourishment from the very Beginning

Halev Foundation supports the Lior Program, lead by the Ms. Leah Mussari, an expert in early childhood development, with 30 years of experience in the field, winner of the Tel Aviv’s Notable Person award. This program provides guidance to parents whom are foster placement alumni and their toddlers ages 0-4.

The Lior program focuses on the developmental continuum, dealing with language acquisition, thinking, developing motor skills, graphic-motor abilities, socialization, values – norms and boundaries, object permanence and dealing with loss.

The Lior program develops and creates confidence building interactions between parent and child, enriches and develops the child and his relationship with his parents starting at birth. Guidance is given in small groups, maintaining social sensitivity and mutual respect. As part of this guidance observations are conducted in order to become familiar with the child’s character and help him to grow and develop, while showing understanding, acceptance and respect of his skills and actions.

As is known, mothers who are foster care alumni, often have not experienced a strong mother-daughter bond and must construct a new model of parenting to suit their needs. The program provides parents with answers regarding child development, while guiding them in the right direction. Parent-child activities include singing, drawing, story time, building blocks, learning about colors and shapes, dancing, movement and lots of love. The image of the parent as a strong successful educational model is reinforced as parents are given tools and knowledge on how to cope with the challenges ahead. The children on the other hand experience an educational environment where they can fulfill their potential. As for the community, group work with the parents and nurturing their abilities enables effective utilization of community services.